


hands on ears

by soare



Category: Messiah Project - All Media Types
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-27
Updated: 2015-07-27
Packaged: 2018-04-11 15:08:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4440596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soare/pseuds/soare
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Right now he wonders where those earphones are, if only so he could make Mamiya wear them in order to not hear his heart skipping a beat just now.</p>
            </blockquote>





	hands on ears

“Mamiya?”

There weren't a lot of places where Mamiya hung out at, which made it easy for Ariga to know where to find his Messiah. If there was anything that the two of them actually had in common, it was definitely their shared preference of less sociable places.

The salon store front — where Mamiya was quite fond of the two men who saved his life — was surprisingly voided of his missing Messiah. When Ariga questioned the two men, neither had seen Mamiya all day. With a silent nod of thanks, Ariga turned back around and headed to the next place he could think of.

“Mamiya?” He called out when he opened the door to their shared room. An answer wasn't given, but Ariga saw Mamiya sitting on his bed with back to the door.

Apparently, Ariga was either getting ignored or went unnoticed. It turns out to be the second when Ariga steps closer and notices a wire connecting to the earbuds set in Mamiya's ears. And once Ariga popped into Mamiya's vision, the latter visibly jumped from unawareness.

The dim lighting hid the flush of embarrassment on Mamiya's face when he quickly pulled out the earbuds. He let them carelessly fall into his lap before he scooted around to face Ariga in a more polite manner.

“Sorry, didn't hear you.”

“I noticed,” Ariga gave a pointed nod to the earbuds, but wasn't offended otherwise. “There's a meeting being held soon.”

Mamiya gave a small nod as he set aside his earbuds aside, grabbed his jacket next to him and then got up from his bed. He slipped his arms into the sleeves, sliding the jacket over his shoulders; and after straightening out his uniform Mamiya walked over to where Ariga was waiting by their door.

“Let’s go.”

 

It is rare — very, _very_ rare — for any of them to have a 'day off'. Yet even during their downtime, however, Ariga rarely left the facility. He stayed cooped up in his room, sitting against the wall behind his bed, with a book open and propped up in his lap.

With the lack of windows Ariga didn't know how much time has passed. Only the fact that he's a little more than halfway through a book, that he just started reading, gave him an idea that a good bit of time has gone by.

Not once was his reading interrupted, and not once has he seen Mamiya all day. His violin is in its case, standing up against Mamiya's bedside — and Ariga can't imagine Mamiya being gone this long without his precious instrument.

Mamiya is allowed to do anything he wanted on his free time, Ariga wasn't one to judge. Though he is, just the slightest bit, curious about where his Messiah is. All he knows is that Mamiya told him he was going out for a bit.

He puts a piece of paper in the book, a placeholder, before he sets it aside on the nightstand. Ariga slips on a pair of shoes, slips on a black jacket and puts his cellphone in his pocket (no missed calls or messages after a brief checking). It doesn't take him long to get ready, so he'd out the room in just a few minutes with a small click of the door shutting behind him.

The elevators take him up where he casually exits the supposedly restrooms and into the salon. No sign of Mamiya here; Ariga bows his head as a quick greeting before he steps out of the building and out onto the streets.

He pulls his cellphone out of his pocket and swipes a finger across the screen to unlock it. Still no new notifications. Ariga's thumb hovers over the messages icon, but he doesn't quite click down to open it.

Truthfully, they're not the kind of people who talk a lot, which goes for the same on the texting part of their relationship. Ariga would only see curt, short messages of meeting calls or mission related texts if he were to check his conversation with Mamiya. Without knowing whether it would be appropriate or inappropriate to ask about Mamiya's whereabouts (would he sound too clingy if he asked, or too uncaring if he doesn’t?), Ariga decides to lock his screen and tuck his phone away.

Wherever Mamiya is right now, Ariga is going to throw up that in the air when he starts to walk off down the street. Time outside where he doesn't have to constantly watch his own back is something he probably needs. He remembers that there is a park nearby, somewhere relaxing where a lot of his peers go.

It was still in the middle of the afternoon with the sun high up in the sky and children with their parents crowding the park. Ariga walks around to the side where there’s less noise pollution and there, under an array shade of trees, is his Messiah sitting alone on a bench just off the park’s pathway. Though not just sitting and minding his business, Mamiya is actually asleep.

His Messiah is quite the sight really, Ariga muses with a small huff of breath when he takes quiet steps and approaches Mamiya. Mamiya is slouched down so low that he looks like he’s going to slide off of the bench at any point, and his head is hanging off to the side. He looks completely relaxed with his mouth slightly open to let out very soft snores.

“Mamiya,” Ariga calls out without any real volume to his voice, as though he wasn’t sure if he really wanted to call Mamiya out of his slumber or let him continue on sleeping.

When he gets no response or reaction out of the other, Ariga notices that it is because of the set of earbuds that Mamiya had in his ears. Ariga decides to take a seat to the left when he notices a brown paper bag at Mamiya’s other side (he now vaguely remembers Mamiya mentioning he needed to pick up rosin for his violin). For a minute or two he just sits, next to his Messiah, barely a few inches of space in between them.

When the awkward silence and nature watching starts to become dull, Ariga takes his phone out and checks for any missed messages. There’s one from Shirazaki (literally the only other person besides Mamiya who sends him casual messages) asking him where he and Mamiya were and, out of curiosity, if either of them wanted to join Shirazaki and Yuuri for dinner somewhere out. Normally, Ariga would pass on the offer, but one look at his sleeping Messiah and he had a feeling that Mamiya would want to join his fellow peers.

Mamiya still hasn’t moved or let out a single peep, making Ariga wonder if he should worry for his partner’s lack of awareness. Either way, Shirazaki is probably still waiting for a response. So Ariga turns on his phone’s camera function, points it at Mamiya and hits the shutter button when he gets just the perfect angle.

It’s a ridiculous image of Mamiya’s sleeping, that was borderline cute at the same time, but Ariga types out a message to Shirazaki and attaches the image at the end before hitting the ‘ _send_ ’ button.

He puts his phone away and stands up, deciding it is time to wake up his partner and head back. Ariga reaches out with a hand and places it on Mamiya’s shoulder to give him a gentle shake.

“Mamiya,” He calls out, a little louder this time than earlier.

It doesn’t take much for Mamiya’s eyelids to flutter as he regains consciousness. He slowly raises a hand to rub away the drowsiness in his eyes, and when Mamiya notices Ariga his eyes widen in surprise. Like a rabbit, Mamiya suddenly sits up straight, trying to properly fix himself and he yanks out the earbuds.

“W-What are you doing here, Ariga?” The sleep hasn’t quite left Mamiya’s system yet, so his voice sounds softer and deeper.

“Came out for a walk,” Ariga responds with a small shrug of his shoulders.

Mamiya decides not to question Ariga any further than that, seeming to be satisfied with the plain answer he got. He only looks down at his lap and starts to carefully wrap and coil his earbuds so he could put them away into his pocket. After making sure all of his belongings are put away, Mamiya takes the paper bag into his arms and stands up from the bench.

“Um,” Mamiya gives the other a small, sheepish smile, while clutching the bag to his chest. “Should we head back together then?”

Ariga nods once and so the two start walking back. When he tucks his hands into his pockets, his cellphone bumps into his hand and Ariga remembers Shirazaki’s message.

“Shirazaki and Yuuri want to meet for dinner.”

“That sounds nice. Should we…?”

“Yeah, it’s fine.”

 

Shirazaki feels a vibrated buzz of a text alert from his phone and he pulls it out immediately. His thumb swipes open the reply from Ariga, and he couldn’t help the wide smile that tugs at the corner of his lips when he sees an image of Mamiya’s sleeping face.

‘ _Just found my Messiah. We’ll see you two later._ ’

 

It doesn’t take long for Ariga to notice.

It’s definitely more noticeable when there is more people around; but sometimes Mamiya would pick at the curve of his ear, or scratch at it like an irritation. Most of the time, however, it seems like Mamiya would treat this annoyance by covering his ears with his hair. Which makes Ariga wonder if this is the reason why Mamiya kept his hair long.

Other times Ariga would find his Messiah sporting a pair of earbuds in his ears. The earbuds were the nice, noise-cancelation brand that were pricey, but well worth for their purpose.

Ariga thinks he can piece together Mamiya’s strange habit, except he doesn’t want to make assumptions without actually hearing it from his Messiah.

“What sort of music do you listen to?” He asks out of the blue, in the middle of a stakeout they were assigned to.

There’s no doubt in Ariga’s mind that Mamiya is definitely making a confused face. Ariga rarely volunteered to make up small talk of any sort, especially when they were out on a mission. Though when they’re assigned to a stakeout, hiding in a dark, abandoned office building there was no better time to talk than the present.

Mamiya lowers his binoculars and lets a finger trace the rim of viewfinder, a nervous reaction. “What do you mean?”

“You’re always wearing your earphones,” Ariga continues, nothing seeming to be phased by the awkwardness of the topic. “You must be listening to something, right? Maybe something with violins?”

“Um,” Some more fidgeting, and then Mamiya brings a hand up and scratches behind one ear like clockwork. “It’s not really about the music…”

“Then?”

Luckily it doesn’t take much for Ariga to pull out the truth from Mamiya. Probably because they’re Messiahs after all; and the trust shows when Mamiya’s shoulders sag a bit when he no longer wants to put up a fight. “My ears… They’re sensitive.”

This earns a raised brow from Ariga, but not enough to shake his concentration of their stakeout mission when he continues to check for unusual activity at the building across the street. The silence that follows after makes him realize he has to urge Mamiya to continue or else they would get nowhere. “You can hear really well, I know that.”

A nervous chuckle slips out of Mamiya. “Well, basically, it’s just that it’s a lot to take in when I’m in a crowd or somewhere public. So I put on some earphones and it helps. It’s a lot less conspicuous than an actual pair of earplugs.”

By the end of the explanation Mamiya has bended his legs at the knees and brought them up to his chest, both arms wrapped around them. Mamiya gets no immediate response from the other, but he can feel a sense of understanding in the silence between them.

There’s nothing going on at the building across the street, nor have they heard word of concern from the Shirazaki-Yuuri duo, so Ariga stops looking through the scope of his sniper. The stakeout now seems much smaller to Ariga, compared to him thinking over everything Mamiya just said and piecing together things that have happened over the last few weeks.

He leans the sniper rifle against the wall before he takes a seat on the ground next to his Messiah. Mamiya is looking away, too occupied with fidgeting with the cuff of his sleeve; but not once does Ariga look away. “So, basically, you dislike crowds?”

Mamiya quickly shakes his head. “That is not that. It’s just that sometimes I have a hard time concentrating.”

Ariga thinks he can understand Mamiya’s point as he gives a simple nod to the other. There are times when he noticed that Mamiya would be stuck in a daze, but it never really hindered their missions so he never made a deal out of it.

“I like hanging out with Yuuri and Shirazaki. Kaidou-san, Mitsumi-san, and everyone too really,” Mamiya says in that gentle voice of his, with that gentle smile of his. “But I don’t want them to know about this. It’s not a big deal anyway.”

Ariga gives a single nod of understanding as his response. He gets it, he really does, the way Mamiya never wants to direct attention at himself. This selfless Messiah of his has a point though, as long as Mamiya isn’t in any sort of trouble then there’s no reason for Ariga to speak what business that isn’t his.

Suddenly, Mamiya leans forward enough that most of his weight are on the front of his feet, and it’s just enough for him get a good look at Ariga’s concentrated face. “I like hanging out with you the most. Like when we’re alone I can hear your heartbeat even, because we don’t talk a lot… But it’s a comforting sound and I like it.”

The confession is certainly a surprise to Ariga, but he does a well good job to not show it on his face. Not that it seems to concern Mamiya when he’s still sporting that innocent smile on his lips and the soft look in his eyes.

Still, Ariga is no robot, and eventually he has to turn his head away and cover his mouth to hide the smile that tugs threateningly at the corner of his lips.

“You have no shame at all, Mamiya.”

Right now he wonders where those earphones are, if only so he could make Mamiya wear them in order to not hear his heart skipping a beat just now.

**Author's Note:**

> i've been thinking a lot about mamiya and his amazing sense of hearing
> 
> also i love it when the messiah casts takes so many photos of someya sleeping


End file.
